2021 joins top 7 warmest years on record: WMO

Last year joined the list of the seven warmest years on record, the UN weather agency said on Wednesday, and was also the seventh consecutive year when the global temperature has been more than 1°C above pre-industrial levels; edging closer to the limit laid out under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Although average global temperatures were temporarily cooled by the 2020-2022 La Niña events, 2021 was still one of the seven warmest years on record, according to six leading international datasets consolidated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Global warming and other long-term climate change trends are expected to continue as a result of record levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the agency said.

The average global temperature in 2021 was about 1.11 (± 0.13) °C above the pre-industrial era levels. The Paris Agreement calls for all countries to strive towards a limit of 1.5°C of global warming through concerted climate action and realistic Nationally Determined Contributions – the individual country plans that need to become a reality to slow down the rate of heating.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that global fight against the climate change should match the rhetoric. He said that there is no safe level of global warming.

“If we fail to match climate rhetoric with climate action, we condemn ourselves to a hotter, more volatile earth with worsening disasters and mass displacement.

Ambition must be matched by political will and the availability of resources to make it happen,” Guterres added.